“Regan!” I called. “Worst-case scenario!” She stopped yelling at the officers to turn to me, and I saw understanding flash across her face as her hand went automatically to her hip, where her own Chaos Cuffs were still clipped. Turning, I rushed for Corban and Blake, hitting the activation button on their cuffs just as Regan hit the activation button on Tess’s and Eliana’s. The officers yelled as they all disappeared.

“Activate your cuffs!” I yelled to Serina and Sam. I waited a half second to make sure they disappeared before grabbing Regan’s hand just as Salzburg lunged for us. I felt his fingernails scrape skin as everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, I had no idea where we were going to be. Back inside the mountain? At the Academy Hub? Our jumps had crossed over themselves so much that it all felt like a confusing spiderweb of time travel at this point. But to my relief, I opened my eyes inside the mountain Glitching room with Regan still holding my hand. That relief vanished a moment later when I spotted Salzburg clutching Regan’s arm in a vise grip.

He stood frozen as he took in the empty Glitch platform and the inside of the mountain.

“What did you do?” he asked. I looked over at Regan, who had the same wide-eyed look of horror as Salzburg.

“Where is everyone?” Regan asked, whirling away from Salzburg’s grip to look behind herself at the eerily empty Glitch platform.

My heart did a funny hiccup in my chest as I realized that the rest of our friends and the bombs they’d been carrying were nowhere to be seen. What had happened?

I didn’t have time to think about it, though, because Salzburg chose that moment to launch himself off the platform and race for the bank of computers. Before I could stop her, Regan threw herself after him. She landed on his back like a monkey and wrapped her arms around his neck. I stood frozen as he dug his fingernails mercilessly into her arm.

“Elliot!” Regan yelled. “Do something!” But I had no idea what to do. I was holding a bag of bombs that were set to detonate at any moment, and my partner had the guy responsible for them in a headlock. What should I do first? Bombs. I decided. The bombs were the priority here. Leaving my bag of explosives on the platform, I jumped off it and rushed past Regan and Salzburg, heading for the computers.